freinds, there are more reasons to beleive st.thomas to have visited the west coast of tamilagam(near patanam -kerala). recent BBC documentory came up with more forensic analysis of his possible visit.
whether he came to chennai is difficult to say. but marco polo has mentioned his tomb in chennai region. please refer his book in project gutenberg. it was earlier posted by me last year too. polo was not portugese.
his preaching could have made impact in the region and might have inspired valluvar to be secular in his writing in 5th century.
in sivakamiyin sabatham novel kalki has made a note , king mahendra describes the visit of a saint to that region to the sculptor or the engineer and advises him to keep one of the rathas empty for him -for his god!